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This just keeps getting better and better. UK’s The Guardian reports the story of a 12-year old boy who first spent £288 of his own money, and then rang up £625 on his mother’s credit card to buy virtual equipment for his digital farm in Farmville. Despicable!

£288 + £625 = £913.

That’s almost $1,400, spent in under two weeks. Once again we have a blatant example before us, categorically proving that Farmville is corrupting our youth, emptying out bank accounts and one of the Prime Evils.

Jokes aside, Zynga, creators of Farmville of course offered the unimaginably original and helpful suggestion of “why don’t you password protect your computer?”What stood out to me was the mother’s insistence that Facebook and Zynga should shoulder some of the responsibility, that if Facebook notices a 12 year old spending close to $1,400 on a social game that Facebook facilitates, some red flag should go up somewhere. That sounds logical enough, coming from a mother who allowed her son unsupervised and complete access to her credit card! You go girl!

But the true tragedy of the story is that Facebook banned the boy’s account. Not that the boy’s splurge could be seen in any positive light, but at least he could use the virtual items and money he had invested in. Furthermore, not only will the kid be stripped of the slightest semblance of any social life during most of his adolescent years, now he also won’t be able to ogle at the cute chicks from his school through the relative safety and anonymity of Facebook. The humanity!